Hyderabad baby

Having had a pretty uneventful last day in aurangabad, we set off to Hyderabad, the city of culture (apparently!) . this was our 4th sleeper train, out of 6. When we arrived into Hyderabad we were blasted with heat, having been in ac all night! We hadn't planned anywhere to stay (again) so we stopped off a the closest hostel to the station, called YMCA. Turns out there was no ac (gutted), but we could get a twin room with a fan and balcony for 4.50 a night, equalling 2.25 per person! Winning!
So we headed out promptly, keen explore the city. There are three areas which make up Hyderabad - secunderabad (where we were staying), abids area, and charminar. We decided to go to charminar first, and visit the charminar building, get lost in the bazaars, and the check out chowmahalla palace. The charminar itself wasn't too impressive. On the outside, it is beautiful, but there was no reason to pay to get in. I mean sure, it has a pretty awesome view of the city below from the top o the building, but other than that, nothing too exciting. Something that really came to my attention during this visit, was how poorly the Indians treat their sights. Here, in the charminar, every inch of wall inside was graffitied with names of people who though it would be a great idea to deface a building which, in its day, would have been spectacular. And this is the same with every monument you go to visit in India, with the exception on the taj mahal! I think its such a shame. Imagine if the same thing happened to the Albert hall.
We then checked out the bazaar. We were told that Hyderabad was famous for its bangles, and so it was. Hundreds of pearl and jewellery shops scattered along the street. This wasn't really what we were lookin but had a wander through the bazaar anyway, for a couple of hours. The colours were incredible, from saris to spices. If we were girls, we would be in seventh heaven!
We rounded off the day with a cheeky visit to the chowmahalla palace, which was basically a holiday home for a family called the nizims, but is an amazing place. I've never seen such a beautiful ballroom. They also had a huge collection of vintage cars on show, including a rolls Royce..! It was a nice way to finish the day, and George had his picture taken with him dressed up as a maharaga (Indian royalty).
It was a good, but very hot first day, and we got back to our boiling hot rooms, which were actually warmer than outside! Should have gone for the ac....oh well.

Adios,

H

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Aurangabad - interesting place..

Thankfully, we arrived in aurangabad on tie, but the time was 4am. Being the classic travellers we are, we hadn't organised accommodation, so we to search for the best rates in town. This turned out to be a rather long process, as we initially found a double bed with air con for one thousand rupees (ten pounds) but we thought this was too expensive for low season, especially for the state of the room! So we went on a tour of town in a rickshaw, for what must have been 30 minutes, but everywhere was more expensive, so we settled that we go back to the first place, Tourists home.
We slept in that morning, and then ventured into aurangabad town, and see what it had to offer. Turns out it has very little indeed! In fact, its a horrible town. Dusty, dirty and very little to do. Was a bit frustrating that we had 3 days here, but we were looking forward to doing the ellora caves the next day.
We had organised a tour in which we were given a taxi to take us to the ellora caves. They were about 30 km in distance from ellora, but were well worth going to see! They were quite spectacular. These man made caves, built over 200 years, as a place of worship. There were Buddhist caves, Hindu caves, and another religion of some sort. The amount of detail that was put into these temples was incredible. There were 30 caves in total, scattered along the hillside. Quite remarkable.
After this, we went to visit this temple next door. It looked spectacular from the outside, but as soon as you got closer, it got worse and worse, until you enter, and are shoved through like cattle, in metal fencing around and into the temple, which was quite frankly disgusting. It was full of topless greasy Indian men hosing themselves down with water, and then praying to one of their many gods. It made me realise how much India is prostituting itself to tourism. This temple must have been spectacular back in the day, but now its surrounded by haglers, touts, and advertisement, with rules of what you must and must not do in the temple? Such a shame.
We headed back to the hostel, only to find out that one of the guys on our tour, who we thought was working for the company,was actually also on the tour! Very embarrassing, as we treated him as if he was working for the company all day, when he had also paid for the tour! Oh well.
Our final day consisted of nothing exciting, other than WiFi, and a big supper before catching a train to Hyderabad later that night. We were especially early for this one!

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Bye bye mumbai

Our final day was a later start than usual, with the overnight train to look forward to that evening! It was the floor for us, as the family we were staying with were in the process of moving house. We started up by checking out the CST station, formerly known as the Victoria terminus. It is a pretty impressive building, with millions of people passing through it daily. There is a constant flow of people everywhere you go it Mumbai. You really get a sense of how populated the city is, let alone the country.
We then went to the Crawford street market, having high expectations of the bazaars. Sadly, there was nothing. Just saris and saris, and saris. So many saris, and I didn't really feel like purchasing one for myself...! Having been truly dissapointed by the bazaar, we headed off to the prince of Wales museum. This huge museum had everything to do with Mumbai, and was crowded with hundreds of people, all Indian. It was really interesting, but by this point, I was struggling with the heat and lack of water and food. I could have eaten a horse for lunch if it was possible. Shame there wasn't a tesco nearby. Poor joke, I know.
George was then adamant of heading off to the Nehru centre and the planetarium. When we arrived, there was a huge queue, so we went for it, and cut in. We were also not asked for our tickets, which we hadn't purchased, so we were in...for free! We thought we'd hit the jackpot and gone under the radar, but that's very difficult when your a white guy in India during the low season? We subsequently got caught and had to pay the 50p ticket! The show itself was rubbish. Don't think I really need to say much more about it.
We had one more stop off to see before we left, which was the dhobi ghat. This is where all the washing is done in Mumbai. There were lines and lines of women thrashing the dirt out of the clothes. It didn't look very good for the clothes, but the clothes looked a lot cleaner than when we did our washing in our hostels!
So we finally headed back to the flat, where there was nothing but WiFi and a TV...all you need really..! We chilled there for a couple of hours, as our train was at 9pm from mumbai CST, or what we thought was Mumbai central....
So we were recommended this small Indian restaurant just outside Mumbai central, which specialised in pav baji. This is basically bread and spicy sauce. Was delicious. However, we were a bit stressed out as the food took 30 minutes to get to us, and by the time e finished our food, it was 8:30 and we didn't know where the station was. So we rushed out of the restaurant, and fast walked towards the station. We got there, and looked up on the board for our train number and see which platform we were on. However, we couldn't find it. Where was our train? Did we get the date wrong? Did we get the station wrong?! These ere all the thought running through our minds, hoping that both the answers were no!
George then remembered that CST was the huge station we visited earlier in the day. Oh god. So it was 8:45, our train was leaving in 15 minutes, and the station we had to get to was on the other side of the city. It wasn't looking good. So we ran outside looking for a taxi driver, and ran into this youngish driver who was very keen to know what all the fuss was about. We told him the situation, and he thought he could make it in time, so we promised him we'd pay him 500 rupees (5 pounds) if he got there with ten minutes to spare, which is a lot of money for a taxi driver..! So we jumped in, with little confidence of us making the train in time. The sweat coming off our faces was crazy. Backs drenched, sweat in the eyes. I was planning in my head how else we would get to aurangabad...by bus the next morning? Where would we stay for the night? Another expense.
Nonetheless, we arrived, at 8:55. We had 5 minutes. This was going to be tight. Having found which platform we were on, we noticed that our carriage was on the far end. Seeing as the average Indian train has 30 carriages, it was a long way for us to run! So we ran, and ran, and ran, hoping we'd get there in time!
The relief when I stepped onto our air conditioned carriage was out of this world. I was so sure we were going to miss it. But we made it? George trundled in a minute later. We were both drenched. It looked like we'd just had a shower. We'd made it, and we were off to aurangabad...yey!

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Mumbai

We arrived early afternoon into the hustle and bustle of Mumbai. We were very fortunate enough to have the opportunity to stay with a family in south Mumbai in kemps corner, called the jhaveri's, who are friends with my amazing uncle, simon d-s. They live in an apartment block, giving an amazing view of Mumbai. I was amazed at the difference between Delhi and Mumbai. The high rise buildings, cleanliness and the lifesaving breeze from the sea.
We were knackered having travelled 20 hours from Udaipur, so chilled at the house in the afternoon with the family, and then headed out to the beach and park on our was to banganga tank, which was recommended by saloni. The most impressive thing about it, in my opinion, was the Hindu shine at the top of the tank. The noise coming from the shine, as well as the patterns on the floor made with spices, were so cool. I must have stood there listening for at least 20 minutes, entranced by it all.
We were then fortunate enough to be invited to the weekly family supper with the jhaveri's. This was set in the family palace, and gave us the opportunity to meet all of their family. Both George and I were amazed at how intelligent they all were, discussing politics the whole time, debating modi, and India as a whole. Their English was almost as good as mine, if not better. Half the time, neither of us understood what they were talking about! The meal though was incredible. I don't think I've had that much flavour in my mouth in all my life (no offence mummy!). It was delicious. Enough said.
The next day was our touristy day, visiting the gateway to India, the taj mahal palace, and wondering around the the street, as well as visiting the high court, the university, and last but not least, the wankhede stadium, the home of the Mumbai Indians! We were able to walk in and onto the pitch itself, without anyone telling us off! The huge match between the Mumbai Indians and the rajestan royals was played there the night before. We watched it on TV, and has to be one of the greatest matches I've ever watched. Quite incredible. So because there was a match on the night before, all the flags and memorabilia was scattered across the stadium...free stuff - winning!
That evening was rather uneventful. We went to coast for some free WiFi, and then went to supper and had some dosa..so so yummy. We did the lucky dip, and it turned out it was delicious. Loving Indian food so far.

Adios amigos

H

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Bazaars and swimming

Day two of Udaipur was a lot more chilled out, with less sightseeing, and more wandering around the bazaar blindly. We were really keen the get a classic Indian gap year shirt, and some baggy trousers. And we were had many choices. However, they were all very cheap and touristy.
Having failed to find what we wanted, be were desperate for some food. Walking 50metres is draining enough in this heat. However, before we headed for lunch, we went to visit the jagdish temple. This is a Hindu temple located in the centre of Udaipur, and was immense. We both felt rather out of place, as there were hundreds of people praying inside, but it was incredible to see.
Having used up all of our reserves in the morning, we decided to hit the pool nearby at a hotel. Here we met Kristian. He was on his way up to the same pool at the same time, and we got talking. Turns out he's been travelling for 14 months full stop. Yes, that's right. 14 months. It goes without saying that he had some good stories to tell. We ended up chatting all afternoon, and went to supper before going to the station.
After our first experience of the Indian train stations together in Delhi, we had learnt that there is no need to get there 2 hours early, so we left later this time. However, we didn't quite know that there was going to be a huge festival on other streets of Udaipur, blocking every road possible. Now the thing is, Udaipur streets are tiny. Everyone gets around on motorbikes. Having gone around the whole of town to find an opening, we still couldn't see a way of getting to the station. Things were getting heated. George was adamant we ere going to missit. Fortunately on our 3rd attempt,we got through! And we were off to Mumbai!

Udaipur

Good evening to you all.

So George arrived on Wednesday, which was a great relief, as it was getting a tad lonely by myself, to say the least! To collect him, I took the amazing Delhi metro to the airport, costing me a fraction of the price a taxi would. I was amazed how smart and clean the metro was. Its so different to city above. Its quiet, cold, and clean! So the complete opposite of the city!
He may have been tired, but we had to plan our next month together, and the following day, as we were told by our hotel that we could only stay the one night! So we headed to the train station, not knowing where we were going, let alone how we were going to get the tickets! We arrived, looking like lost tourists, and a kind man came up to us to ask what we were looking for. We told him the whole situation, and he showed us directions to a tourist office 5 minutes away.
He turned out to be our lifesaver, as it turned out booking tickets in India is not as straightforward as in England. There are huge awaiting lists on the trains, meaning you have no garentee if you will have a bed/chair on the train. This worried us, but fortunately we could get a tourist ticket, allowing us to bypass the system, with a little added cost. So we planned out where we wanted to go in India, and asked if they could book our tickets from these locations for us, to leave the next day.
So our first stop was Udaipur, mainly because we saw it as a stop off point between Delhi and Mumbai, which would take 25 hours on the train. So we didn't know what to expect from the rajestani city. We arrived early that morning, havinn taken the overnight train, and checked in. It turned out the city was magical, set on a lake, and is said to be one of the most romantic spots in India,,,perfect for me and George! So we took a walk around the centre of the city, walking through the bazaar, up to the city palace, where we then booked a boat tour and visit the two palaces on the lake. Now when I say on the lake, I mean on the lake. They have been buildin the centre of the lake, and are two of the most prestigious/expensive hotels in rajestan. They also look stunning, as if they are floating on the water. The boat tour enabled us to view the city palace from the water, and we stopped off at on of the hotels.
Having finished our boat tour, and met some fellow Brits on the boat, we then went to look at the city palace museum for a bit, followed by more bazaar browsing/bartering and some well deserved lunch.
Now you must remember, its summer time in India, and low season for tourists, as it it boiling. And I mean, boiling! It was 40 degrees in Udaipur, meaning being out in the sun for more than 30 minutes almost kills you! You understand why it is low season! But it doesn't really bother us, and we know we'll only have this opportunity once in our lifetime, and need to experience as much of India as possible whilst we're here.
Now during my first couple of days in India by myself, I always felt that everyone who approached you had an ulterior motive, which a lot of them do, but whilst we were resting in the shade on the street, a man comes up to us and asks us the classic question "where you from, my friend", and I thought, " here we go again". It turns out he was on his way to the art school, and was wondering if we would like to come along to see the exhibition. Nowwhen I say art school, its only a little house with a couple of painters in it. But as soon as we arrived, there were two artists in the middle of their artwork. They were incredible. And I mean incredible. I have never in all my life seen such detail in one painting. They were saying that one painting, the size of a book, tales them 2 months in total. We were then invited to play the local board game, with is basically hand snooker, with plastic material. Very fun.
The whole evening with them was such fun, and made me realise that there are good people out there, just wanting to know a bit more about you. Evenings like those are ones I will never forget, and I hope there are many more like that to come during my travels of India!
We then went to watch some rajestani dancing for an hour, which was a spectacle to say the least. It included puppets, dancing, and a woman who had ten buckets balanced on her head whilst stepping on broken glass. It was so so cool.
More to come soon.

Henry

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The Taj, Trains and Cricket

Yesterday was a busy, but I feel like it was a productive one. After seeing the might that is the Taj, my tuk tuk driver, and his brother, took me on a tour of Agra, including the baby taj mahal, the black mahal, the Agra fort, and a swimming pool!
The baby taj was build 20 years before the taj mahal, and is pretty much a baby taj...! Its in a very scenic location, next to the river, and beautiful gardens. There wasn't much to see in the building itself, but was fascinating nonetheless. I sat on top of the hill to the river front for, what must have been, an hour, watching the cows wallow in the river, and the local kids play. The thing that really stood out though, was the litter. It was everywhere! I can't say I'm not surprised, as I'm in India, not Chelsea, but there quantity was astounding.
Following the baby taj, we whizzed off to see the foundations on the black taj mahal. This is location on the other side of the river, opposite the taj. The reason for it only being a foundation, is due to the fact that black marble was almost there times the price of white marble when they build the two of them, and sadly the project didn't go ahead. However, it does make for a beautiful views of the taj mahal, with nothing but there sound of the birds. No bloody american tourists in their polo shirts, chino shorts, and white pulled up socks with trainers.
Having visited the black taj, it was almost 12, and was BOILING. We were planning on going to the Agra fort, but I decided against it, as I was struggling in the heat. I therefore decided to go and cool off at a hotel pool nearby. Its safe to say that it saved me. I stayed here for 4 hours, before leaving for the train station.
Arriving at a grotty, smelly and hot train station, I didn't have high hopes for my 5 pound train to Jaipur. But I couldn't have been more wrong. I had booked the chair class, which is air conditioned, but was much cooler than my first class trip from Delhi. My first class trip coast me 3 times the price, and all I got was a top bunk and a fan above my head. I also had to share with 2 others, who turned out to be very friendly, but I didn't enjoy the trip. My train from Agra to Jaipur, on the other hand, was delightful. I may sound a tad camp saying that sentence, but it really was. I had a comfy seat, with a table and lots of legroom. I was sitting next to and opposite three very welcoming men, who I actually felt I could trust. They didn't have an ulterior motive, like 90% of people you meet in India. We then got food! Free food! I got a bottle of water, chai, some orange wafers, nuts, and this yummy pastry thingy. I thought that was all, but I was wrong! We then got treated to curry and rice with chapati and some ice cream to finish it all off. Surely they must be making a loss. There were at least 100 people in that particular class, and this was all for 5 pounds. Makes the UK first class and train system look like a fool.
I arrived into Jaipur late into the night, at 11ish, and had organised a pick up from the station, but guess what. He wasn't there! Second time in 4 days. But when I got to hotel pearl palace, i was pleased with what I saw. I have a nice air conditioned room, with satellite TV and a private bathroom. Its also very comfy.
Today was a late one, and once I'd woken up, I got a taxi to the spa. Thought I'd treat myself. Was nice to relax and de stress. I then got a tut tut to take me to all the sights in the city. I went to the city palace, hawamahal, jantaar mantar, and the Albert's half. Yes,its called the Albert's hall. It's a museum..nothing exciting. Thee most impressive by far was the city palace. I got an audio guide, and t really brought to life the displays. Was an amazing building as well.
Tomorrow I am going to all three forts surrounding the city. I can't remember all their names off the top of my head, but I'm excited!
Wow, that was a long one today. Hope none of you fell asleep reading it! I've just finished ma curry and off to bed. See you back in Delhi!

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